Most of the outdoor camping scenes were shot inside a very large warehouse.
The last big rapid that they run before going over the waterfall is a Class 5 rapid, and the scene was performed by stunt doubles since running rapids in a canoe is dangerous and unusual.
Without a Paddle was filmed on the central North Island of New Zealand and on rivers just north of Wellington.
On July 8th 2016, the FBI officially closed the D.B. Cooper investigation after 45 years.